One for the money, two for the show

DON’T BLAME ME: Outrage over the run on ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour last fall inspired two competing bills, one from each house — and so far, Democrats haven’t picked sides.

Assembly Bill 8 by Laura Friedman (D-Burbank) would require ticket sellers to provide more transparency about pricing and give buyers more control over their ticket once purchased. But Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, is fighting it — and backing its own legislation about ticket regulation, Senate Bill 785, from Anna Caballero (D-Merced).

The Caballero bill, which legislative analysts say tilts the playing field in favor of the ticketing industry, “will not infringe upon the rights of the teams, entertainers and venues that invest in, create and deliver live events for our fans,” Live Nation argues.

Anyone who has bought a ticket in the last 25 years understands the fees, confusion and frustration that come with snagging a ticket to a concert or sporting event. Some maintain that the problem was exacerbated in 2010, when the largest venue operator and ticket seller, Live Nation and Ticketmaster, merged, effectively squashing other competitors.

Critics of the merger have long accused the company of running a monopoly. And the botched pre-sale for Swift’s tour last year — which was mired in long wait times, eye-popping prices and website outages — galvanized fans and lawmakers alike, who say it’s time for more consumer protections.

“It was thought that the internet would make ticket selling even easier and promote greater transparency for consumers,” Friedman said in committee this week. “However, it appears that the opposite has been happening.”

A critical dividing line between the two bills: ticket resale. AB 8 supporters contend that buyers should be able to do as they please with a ticket after they purchase it. Industry actors disagree. SB 785 looks to crack down on third-party resellers, such as Stubhub, and give more power to the original sellers like Ticketmaster, including creating new penalties for the secondhand sellers.

One closely watched provision was stripped out of Friedman’s bill — the prohibition on holding back tickets from website sales, which some say creates a false scarcity that drives up demand and, therefore, prices. Friedman said she removed the provision as an effort to compromise with opponents, but didn’t rule out adding it back before a final vote.

Both bills passed out of their respective committees and now head to the house floors for a vote. Will the bad blood continue? Stay tuned.

HAPPY THURSDAY AFTERNOON! Welcome to California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check of California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to bjones@politico.com or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

ZEROING OUT POLLUTING TRUCKS — The Air Resources Board this week is expected to approve new regulations to phase out gas-powered engines in school buses, delivery vans, farm vehicles, and trucks that move cargo around ports. As laid out in a hearing today, the shift over the next 10 years will be more of a challenge than the transition to zero-emission cars. The phaseout, which would be set in motion with board approval expected by Friday, will be expensive to fleet owners and depend on further developments in zero-emission technology and infrastructure. Still, advocates say it’s worth the effort because trucks and buses play an outsize role in air pollution. “You’ll be doing more at this meeting than anything else that’s done this year to reduce air pollution in California,” Bill Magavern, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, told the board. — Wes Venteicher

On the beats

OVERDOSE OVERTONES — Despite a high-pressure campaign to act on the fentanyl crisis, which has caused a spike in youth overdose deaths in California and elsewhere, Assembly Democrats today rebuffed bills that they said could lead to increased incarceration. The Committee on Public Safety, chaired by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), passed several bills that take a less punitive approach — like requiring better coordination among certain state and local agencies to combat drug trafficking — but rejected two sentencing enhancements for synthetic opioids.

Among the failed measures were bills that would have increased penalties for large quantities of fentanyl and added sentencing enhancements when someone causes bodily harm from selling or furnishing the drug. Republican Assemblymember Tom Lackey grew frustrated with the repeated comparison to the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and early 90s. “Fentanyl is not akin to crack,” he said. “These victims of this drug die. They don’t have a chance for rehabilitation.”

COMMISSION CONTROL — California collects roughly $4 billion each year from a millionaires tax that voters approved nearly two decades ago for mental health services — and Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to rethink how that money is spent. He also wants to consolidate power by bringing the independent commission overseeing the program under his administration’s purview — and making the commission head a governor’s appointee.

The commissioners — worried that they’d no longer be able to provide proper oversight and that the body would become politicized — are pushing back. At a meeting this afternoon of the Mental Health Services Oversight Commission, administration representatives were repeatedly asked what they hoped to accomplish by bringing the independent body under the thumb of the California Health and Human Services Agency. Over and over, Deputy Secretary of Behavioral Health Stephanie Welch told commissioners, “I hear you,” but had no answers.

“I don’t understand why we’re going to eliminate what is effectively the Silicon Valley of mental health and roll it into the battleship,” said Commissioner Steve Carnevale, referring to state government. — Rachel Bluth

AROUND CALIFORNIA

— “LA’s water lifeline faces unprecedented flood threat. The battle to prevent calamity,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Louis Sahagún: Historic snowpack levels in the Eastern Sierra are expected to melt into runoff that is 225% of normal, which translates to about 326 billion gallons of water that will need to be managed, DWP officials said.

And while a typical runoff season in the region can last from May to June, this year’s “could push through to August,” said Anselmo Collins, senior assistant general manager of the DWP’s water system.

The DWP has already begun emptying reservoirs to create more storage space for the roughly 130 billion gallons of water expected to make its way to Los Angeles this spring and summer via the aqueduct — potentially enough to meet 80% of L.A.’s annual demand.

— “Shasta County votes to spend millions manually counting ballots — and not all voters are happy,” by The Sacramento Bee’s Jenavieve Hatch: In March, Shasta became the first county in California to pivot to a manual tally. The county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems ended in January, and after right-wing news outlets and commentators spread the falsehood that the machines were rigged, board members decided not to renew it; instead of replacing it with different machines, they opted for the controversial decision to count ballots by hand at great expense.

Chief fiscal officer Erin Bertain warned the board on Tuesday that the decision to hand count votes could cost the county at least $3 million through the 2024-2025 fiscal year, because the county will likely need to hire 1,500 ballot counters for the 2024 election. There are nearly 112,000 registered voters in Shasta County; in the last presidential election, 94,084 people turned out to vote.

MIXTAPE

— “Fire sale: $300 Million San Francisco office tower, mostly empty. Open to offers,” by The Wall Street Journal’s Peter Grant and Jim Carlton.

— “S.F. spends $356 million on rooms for homeless people. Why do so many sit empty?” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joaquin Palomino and Trisha Thadani.

— “Column: Wendy Carrillo explains why she’s running against her former ally, Kevin de León,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Gustavo Arellano.

Compiled by Matthew Brown

CORRECTION: A previous version of this newsletter misattributed a quote from Commissioner Steve Carnevale about a proposal to move the Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission under administration control.